COGNITION AND ESTROGEN IN MIDDLE-AGED FEMALE MONKEYS

自然或外科绝经引起的雌激素缺乏症 可能对人类健康和福祉产生深远影响的变化。 绝经后的女性表现出认知功能的改变，这被认为是 可以归因于雌激素的丢失。然而，确定两者之间的关系 雌激素状态和认知功能可能在一段时间内很难研究 原因多种多样。为了绕过这些困难，调查员 研究了手术诱导的幼猴更年期的影响。损失 雌激素，独立于衰老的影响，可以导致 认知加工。然而，因为女性的平均年龄 经历更年期是50年，下一步要确定是否 年龄和雌激素丢失的交互作用对认知更有害 比单独使用雌激素更有能力。本项目的目的是确定 中年人雌激素状态与认知功能的关系 恒河猴。雌激素水平将通过卵巢切除和 雌激素替代疗法(ERT)。这项研究将延长最初的 青年雌性猕猴至中年的行为调查 并确定去卵巢的中年雌性猴子是否 一个适合绝经后中年妇女的动物模型。

Estrogen deficiency caused by natural or surgical menopause yields changes that can have far reaching consequences on human health and well-being. Postmenopausal women show alterations in cognitive function that are thought to be attributable to estrogen loss. However, determining the relationship between estrogen states and cognitive function can be difficult to study in women for a variety of reasons. To circumvent these difficulties, the investigator has examined the effects of surgically-induced menopause in young monkeys. Loss of estrogen, independent of the effects of aging, can cause decrements in cognitive processing. However, because the average age at which women experience menopause is 50 years, the next step is to determine whether the interactive effects of age and estrogen loss are more deleterious to cognitive abilities than estrogen alone. The purpose of this project is to determine the relationship between estrogen states and cognitive function in middle-aged rhesus monkeys. Estrogen levels will be manipulated through ovariectomy and estrogen replacement therapy (ERT). This study will extend the initial behavioral investigations conducted in young female monkeys to middle- aged female monkeys and determine if the ovariectomized middle-aged female monkey is an appropriate animal model of the middle-aged postmenopausal woman.